TEMECULA: Temecula's Allison Sanchez heads to high school

Mom: 'We're lucky ducks to have her'

She likes Taylor Swift, the Jonas Brothers and hanging out with
her friends.

In school, math is her favorite subject.

And Allison Sanchez rolls her eyes when old reruns of "Perry
Mason," her mother's favorite show, come on television.

"They're all gray and white," she says in mock disgust.

Typical 15-year-old?

Not by a long shot.

In a series of articles dating to 1997, The Californian has
followed Temecula's Allison Sanchez from the operating room at San
Diego's Children's Hospital, where as a 2-year-old she underwent
brain surgery to remove a tennis ball-sized tumor, to now, as she
prepares to enter high school.

In June, Allison graduated from Temecula's Erle Stanley Gardner
Middle School. In the fall, she will be a freshman at Great Oak
High School.

Before the recent ceremony, Allison wrote a note to her mother
that read, "Dear Mom, I love you, but don't cry at my
graduation."

After all they have been through as a family, it was tough, Joni
Sanchez said, but she managed to hold back the tears.

"It was great," the mother said. "She's so excited about going
to high school."

Every day is a winding road

In 1996, Allison, then just 1, was diagnosed with a massive
brain tumor called an infratentorial ependymoma. The tumor was
wrapping around her brain stem and invading the area where her left
brain lobe would normally have grown.

None of this was evident to Ralph and Joni Sanchez in Allison's
first year, although they had concerns when their daughter had not
begun to walk and appeared to be falling behind
developmentally.

Both parents were health care professionals. He was a U.S. Navy
chief petty officer and hospital corpsman assigned to Camp
Pendleton, and she was a registered nurse at a Hemet hospital.

One night after dinner, as Ralph cleaned spaghetti and marinara
sauce off his young daughter's face, he felt a lump on the side of
her head.

A series of medical tests were ordered, and surgery was
recommended. A surgical team at San Diego Children's Hospital
performed a five-hour procedure using a laser scalpel to "debulk"
layer after layer of the tumor.

The operation was termed a success. However, to avoid damaging
Allison's healthy brain tissue, some of the tumor had to be left
behind. An aggressive protocol of chemotherapy was ordered to kill
the remaining portion of the tumor.

When an MRI scan following the radiation treatments proved
inconclusive about whether the tumor had been destroyed, the family
sought a second medical opinion.

A surgeon with the UC San Francisco School of Medicine
recommended additional surgery to make sure the tumor would not
grow back.

In July 1997, Allison underwent another five-hour operation,
this time at Sutter Memorial Hospital in Sacramento. Using a
three-dimensional computer mapping system connected to a
high-powered microscope, doctors removed much of the tumor tissue
attached to Allison's brain system.

Lab tests confirmed that no cancer cells were present in that
tissue and the young girl was considered disease-free. Yet, to be
considered cured, Allison would have to go 10 years without a
recurrence of the tumor. Doctors ordered the young girl to undergo
an MRI every three months.

Bumps along the way

In 2000, Allison began getting headaches from pressure building
up in her head caused by fluid that wasn't draining properly.
Leftover scar tissue was blocking the normal pathway that drains
extra fluid from the head into her abdomen.

A shunt, or drainage tube, was implanted to help relieve the
pressure. Since then, the shunts, which are programmable to control
the flow of fluid from the brain, have been replaced numerous
times, most recently about two years ago.

In 2006, The Californian caught up to Allison, then 11, at "Camp
Reach for the Sky" in Julian. Sponsored by the American Cancer
Society, the camp is held each summer for cancer patients and
survivors ages 8 to 18 and is underwritten by sponsors and
donations.

The Sanchez family first learned about the camp while Allison
was undergoing treatment at Children's Hospital in San Diego in
2003.

At the time, several of what Joni Sanchez called "setbacks"
requiring surgeries had left Allison mostly dependent on a
wheelchair, but that did little to slow the girl down.

A member of the "Whammies" ---- a group of five preteen girls
living in Cabin 5a ---- Allison took turns aiming her paint-ball
gun at targets, and an occasional camp counselor.

The giggles and joyful squeals of the young girls rippled
throughout the 260-acre campground.

Allison has returned to the camp, held at Camp Marston, a YMCA
facility in the Cuyamaca Mountains, almost every year.

Up to date

These days, Ralph is retired from the Navy, but still works at
Camp Pendleton assisting families of deployed U.S. service members
to get the resources they need.

Joni works for a home health care company as a clinical
supervisor dealing with special-needs families.

The family has two older children ---- Alexis, a married
daughter who lives in San Clemente, and their son, Ryan, an
undergrad at Cal State Long Beach.

After more than a decade of undergoing brain scans, last year
Allison was declared disease-free.

"It's such a relief not to have to put her through that
anymore," Joni said.

Inside her home, Allison is able to walk pretty much unassisted.
However, at school and outside the house she relies on a walker,
and on occasion, a wheelchair.

"Some things don't change," Ralph said. "We've had some ups and
downs in recent years, but more ups than downs."

Those include several orthopedic surgeries to improve her motor
skills.

"It's really just been some fine-tuning," he said.

Allison said she has fond memories of middle school ---- where
she attended special education classes, as she will at Great Oak
---- especially of her aide, whom she calls Miss Debbie, and of
teacher Mike Arroyo, a diehard Los Angeles Dodgers fan.

"We're Yankee fans around here," Allison said.

A graduation party was held at the house.

"It was a big milestone," Joni said. "You've got to celebrate
every single occasion."

The future

Recently, the family has attended several events for younger
cancer victims and other children with circumstances similar to
Allison's.

"I think it's good for people to see the long-term results,"
Joni said, "and to see people like us who have beaten the
odds."

What the future holds for Allison beyond high school remains to
be seen.

"We don't know," said Joni. "She can go from being a
pediatrician to working at the ice cream shop."

For now, there's summer vacation and then on to ninth grade.

"She's worked very hard and she's a real trooper," Joni said.
"She tells me all the time we're lucky ducks to have her."